EU, Pentagon Convinced that Kramatorsk Railway Station Was Attacked by Russia

The European Union is convinced that it was the Russian Federation that launched a missile strike on a railway station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.

“The European Union is deeply shocked by Russia’s attack that struck Kramatorsk railway station on Friday and claimed lives of more than 50 people, injuring scores of others, many of them critically. This was a brutal, indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians, including many children, who were fleeing amid fears of another Russian onslaught against their homes and country… There must be no impunity for war crimes. The EU supports measures to ensure accountability for human rights violations and international humanitarian law,” reads the statement by the spokesperson of the European External Action Service.

As the Radio Liberty reports, a high-ranking official of the U.S. Department of Defence confirmed at a closed briefing for journalists that the Tochka-U missile strike on Kramatorsk had been launched by Russian troops.

“Obviously, we are not buying the denial by the Russians that they weren’t responsible [for the missile strike]. They originally claimed a successful strike, and then only retracted it when there were reports of civilian casualties,” journalists quote a Pentagon spokesperson as saying.

In his evening video address yesterday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the missile strike on the railway station and called on the European Union to expand sanctions against Russia.

“Like the massacre in Bucha, like many other Russian war crimes, the missile strike on Kramatorsk must be one of the charges at the tribunal, which is bound to happen,” the Head of State said.

As a reminder, on 8 April, the Russian military launched a missile strike at the Kramatorsk railway station in the Donetsk region, at which about 4,000 civilians stayed expecting an evacuation.

As of the evening of 8 April, 52 people, including five children, were reported killed. Another 109 people were injured.

Immediately after the attack, several Russian propaganda Telegram channels reported that it was the Russian army that struck and that the Ukrainian military was the target of the attack. These reports were later edited, and the Kremlin said that Russia was not involved in the attack, accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine of shelling.

Bohdan Marusyak